Credit Cards & America's Debt

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." (Esther de Waal)

As the economy continues to freefall, panic has set in as people look for more ways to hold on to their hard earned money. In the US especially, we've become a country lead by greed. People bought homes much bigger then they needed and more expensive then they could afford. Large SUV's with excessive room are parked in driveways across the country. Gone was the believe that less is more. We bought and charged without a thought about the future.

Well, the future is now and now that the bills have come due, no one has the money to pay. Banks, insurance companies, car manufacturers, are all struggling to stay out in front of the economical landslide. While the government continues to throw out life preservers, there will come a point when they will run out and there won't be enough for everyone.

While the country struggles to stay afloat, I wonder how we didn't see this coming. Maybe we were too busy buying our flat screen plasma televisions and making sure there was a DVD player in the car to entertain little Johnny. Or, maybe we were to busy texting on our cell phones or downloading music to our iphones. Even our children are busy with cell phones, hand held games and mp3 players.

We bought everything they sold us, charging a great deal of it. Now, not only have the credit card companies reduced the number of days in an billing cycle, they've increased the APR even on people with good credit. There are people who are paying over 20% interest, an obscene rate. Realizing the growing amount of customers unable to pay their bill, some credit card issuers have even decreased the credit limit on the cards, trying to safeguard against people charging up the bill only to default.

It's no secret the credit card companies are struggling and it's no secret who they're going to make pay, us. The easy fix is to stop using the credit cards, but with so many people unemployed and underemployed, many don't have the money to survive without them. Many paychecks aren't big enough to pay the bills and put food on the table. So, what's a person to do? We're living in a great time when anything's possible, why has it gotten this bad?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. (Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities)

Oh what a tangled web we weave when we live beyond our means.